Who’s
Holiday
3Below
Theaters
December 7,
2018
If you think
the latest Grinch cartoon was entirely unnecessary, and what you’d really like
to see is the whole enterprise blown up in a raunchy, comic explosion, then Who’s
Holiday is your ticket. Matthew Lombardo’s script, written in perfect Seussian
couplets, visits Cindy Lou Who in middle age, trying to get any of her Whoville
friends to come to her holiday party but beset by a checkered past that has
made her a bit of an outcast. All the better, since we get to have her to
ourselves.
The Avenue
Q-ness of the play is evident right away, as Cindy Lou recounts that fateful
night: “…but I caught him green-handed as he was stealing our shit!” Her tale proceeds
to her 18th birthday, when she discovers something else that grew three sizes that day (“If
you think black guys are hung, try going jade”).
Our hostess
is Shannon Guggenheim, who is 3Below’s Miss Everything (including librettist of
their awesome Meshuga Nutcracker musical). She dispenses quickly with the
fourth wall, and third wall, and a little of the second, throwing in regular
asides and a running commentary on the challenges of stagework. Much of the fun
is in the rhyming. When she rhymes “Christmas” with “isthmus,” she takes an
educational timeout to provide a detailed geographical definition. Later, when
she flubs a rhyme, she says, “Hey! This shit is hard.” And then she has to deal with an audience volunteer who
seemed to think he was at an old-school hip-hip rhymeoff (he was good, but he
was making us nervous).
To say
Guggenheim is delightful doesn’t really say enough. She is an absolute natural
onstage, and her Cindy Lou is sexy, funny, and ingratiating. She even makes us
a little sad, singing “Blue Christmas” for her estranged green-skinned daughter
(who’s off touring as Elphaba in “Wicked”). In short, she’s exactly the kind of
woman you’d like to hang out with at a party. And to hell with those
sanctimonious Who’s!
December 7 - 22, 2018. Fridays
and Saturdays at 7:30pm. , 3Below
Theaters & Lounge, 288 So. Second Street, San Jose, $36 - $45. www.3Belowtheaters.com or
408.404.7711.
Michael J. Vaughn is the author of 21
novels and two plays, Café Phryque and Darcy Lamont, available at amazon.com.
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